Rapid changes in cellular structure that are of fundamental evolutionary interest may have arisen
in the first instance in green flagellates than higher organisms.
At the base of flagella in these algae are found diverse networks of interconnecting filaments that are not only responsible for
anchorage and placement of flagella but which must now also be implicated in defining the symmetries of flagellar coordination.
Fiber contractility can produce elastic coupling between BBs to force nearby flagella into
modes of synchrony (IP or AP) that oppose hydrodynamic influences [1]}, [2]}.
This elasticity may be actively modulated, highlighting a direct correlation between cellular physiology and
flagellar beating that has already been identified [3]}, [4]}.
Further insights into such processes will certainly require additional modelling and experimentation.
The rapidity with which patterns of synchrony can change is suggestive of transduction by electrical signals or ionic
currents [5]}, which may be effected from cell interior to flagella by changes in the state of contraction
or relaxation of connecting fibers.
Striations of algal rhizoplasts are even biochemically mutable in a manner reminiscent of mammalian muscle.
We are therefore led to suggest that a parallel evolution of neuromuscular control of appendages may have occurred much earlier than
previously thought [6]}, [7]}.
